New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) India has taken yet another step in furthering its cultural diplomacy in south-east Asia with a new Indian cultural centre in Seoul.

 
 President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Karan Singh, left for a week-long visit to Seoul where he will inaugurate the centre Thursday, ICCR said in a statement.
 
 The new ICCR cell in Seoul will be located at the prestigious Sejong Centre.
 
 Karan Singh will deliver a lecture at the Korea Foundation and inaugurate the cultural programme with eminent artistes from India. He will then proceed to Cambodia where the Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University at Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, will award him an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters).
 
 Finally he will fly to Bangkok where he will dine with Princess Sirindorn Mahachakri, a great lover of India, and also a lecturer at the University.
 
 This tour is part of the general look-east policy that the ICCR has adopted over the last few years and that has resulted in the opening of as many as nine Indian cultural centres in south and south-east Asia.
 
 “In Korea, our heritage dates back to the Princess of Ayodhya who came here in 48 AD, married King Kin Suro of Gimhae and acquired fame as Queen Heo,” Karan Singh said before leaving the country.
 
 “I take with me warm greetings from the people of India to the people of the shining lamp of the east, as Korea was famously and fondly described by Rabindranath Tagore, a great son of India who is revered in Korea for his solidarity with it against imperialism," he said.
 
 "This year happens to be the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore and I would like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to this abiding friend and admirer of Korea,” Karan Singh said.